


Regaining Trust

by csichick_2



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: F/F, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5469698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csichick_2/pseuds/csichick_2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurel is interested in Michaela as more than just a friend.  The problem is that Michaela doesn't trust her.  At all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regaining Trust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elyndis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyndis/gifts).



When Laurel said that Michaela was hers during that orgy discussion, she wasn’t joking. Not entirely. While her attraction to Frank was real, there was far more to Laurel than met the eye. She had her fair share of boyfriends at Brown, but she also had a few girlfriends. Girlfriends that she never told anyone about – especially not her family. Though given the events at Christmas, she doesn’t really care what her family thinks anymore. And if she’s honest with herself, things with Frank were purely physical. With Michaela, not only is she smoking hot, but the two of them can match wits in a way she hasn’t been able to do anyone before. The hard part is just going to be getting Michaela to let her in.

She knows that Michaela doesn’t trust her after the incident with the engagement ring, and Laurel can’t exactly blame her. But in the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. That night, Michaela was the most likely to snap and it seemed like the only thing that would keep her quiet. She almost didn’t give Michaela the ring back, but returning it meant one less thing weighing on her conscience. Especially if it was their last night of freedom because Rebecca was ratting them all out to the police. Except they’re still not in jail and Laurel has to earn both Michaela’s forgiveness and her trust. And she knows that’s going to be much easier said than done.

She considers asking Connor for advice as he and Michaela appear to have become best friends, but she decides against that unless she’s desperate. Connor no doubt would make some crude comment about how she must be switching teams because Frank couldn’t satisfy her, and that’s something she’d prefer to avoid if at all possible. Asking Wes is also out, because he’s far too obsessed with figuring out what happened to Rebecca to be useful. And Asher never crossed her mind as someone to ask for so many reasons. That means that for now, she has to figure this out on her own.

Since Michaela hasn’t been listening to Laurel’s verbal apologies, she decides to put it down on paper. She knows that it’s probably an exercise in futility, but it’s worth a shot. One day she slips it into Michaela’s notebook and hopes for the best. Michaela does look at her strangely for a few days afterwards, which Laurel takes to mean that she read the apology note. But she never says anything to her about it, so Laurel isn’t sure what to think. After about a week, Laurel finds a note in her own notebook, containing only one sentence “You didn’t say why you came clean.” As surprised as she is by the note’s presence, she’s even more surprised by the contents. She’d always assumed that Michaela was more concerned about why Laurel took it in the first place, and not why she gave it back. Especially since Michaela and Aiden have since split up, which Laurel suspects has something to do with Michaela finding out about Aiden’s sexuality from Connor.

Laurel knows that the adult thing to do would be to sit down and have a discussion with Michaela, but up to this point talking has gotten her nowhere, so instead she turns her notebook to a clean page and starts writing. She starts with the truth – that she almost didn’t say anything – and talks about how it had been weighing on her conscience. She continues with saying that the very real possibility of going to jail after Rebecca’s disappearance was the catalyst. Had they been arrested, the ring would have been found in her belongings, so it would have come out anyway. But Laurel figured that Michaela would take it better finding out from the source. And having the ring cataloged as one of her personal belongings instead of in an evidence bag.

The hardest part for Laurel to write is the end. The part where she admits that she regrets giving the ring back, even though it was the right thing to do. Because giving the ring back shattered any trust that Michaela had in Laurel. And that means that no matter how much Laurel wants to get to know the other woman better, it’s not going to happen until they can clear the air about the ring.

It takes a few days for Laurel to be able to slip the note into Michaela’s notebook, as Connor has caught on to the fact that something is going on and has been paying close attention to both Laurel and Michaela as though he’s waiting for for a real cat fight to break out, as opposed to their minor yelling match from a few weeks prior. When she finally is able to place it undetected, she watches anxiously for Michaela’s reaction and days pass without any sign that she even read the note. Part of Laurel fears that the note fell out somewhere, but she knows that she saw Michaela put her notebook in her bag that day. So if the note did fall out, it would at least still be in Michaela’s possession. And considering the contents of the note, that is a good thing. A very good thing. That leaves three possibilities. That Michaela didn’t believe Laurel’s explanation, that she didn’t find it satisfactory, or that Laurel came on too strong in the wanting to get to know her part of the letter. With no way to know which is true, Laurel resigns herself to having ruined any chance she ever might have had with Michaela and considers herself lucky that the other woman hasn’t become more hostile towards her.

Then one day, Laurel receives a text from Michaela. “Sold the ring. Want to help me spend the money?” She immediately replies back that she would love to, and doesn’t really care if she sounds a little too eager. It turns out that all hope isn’t lost after all and Laurel isn’t about to let that opportunity pass her by.


End file.
